“On the way,” Ronan said, leaning over to kiss her forehead.
“I thought you were cooking,” she said.
Pregnancy suited her. Her dark blond hair had grown longer over the past few months, and the amber in her brown eyes looked more pronounced, like she was glowing from the inside out.
Nick laughed. “That was your first mistake.”
She smiled. “Fabricci’s?”
“Fabricci’s.”
“Want something to drink while we wait?” Ronan asked.
“I’d love some of the cucumber water in the fridge.”
Ronan jumped up to pour her a glass.
“How was the game?” she asked Nick.
“Shitty,” Nick said. “We lost.”
He’d played rugby in college and had continued with one of the city’s intramural leagues. It had been a passion when he’d first started to play, but now he wondered if he played more out of habit, or even more likely, if he just wanted an excuse to beat the shit out of someone after crunching MIS’s numbers in an office most days.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “But your nose is intact so that’s something.”
He laughed. He’d broken his nose at a game just before the wedding, and all of the wedding pictures featured a battered version of his face over the refinement of his tux. “True.”
“Are we waiting for food?”
Nick turned as Elise came into the kitchen, her long blond hair piled into a messy knot on top of her head. “Fabricci’s.”
She walked over to the skillet cooling on the stove and peered into it. “Is that… cinnamon?”
Nick laughed.
“You guys suck,” Ronan said.
“It was a nice thought,” Julia said, reaching over to run her fingers through his hair.
“Fabricci’s is even nicer,” Elise said.
She removed a beer from the fridge, sat next to Nick at the island, and held up her bottle. “No blood, no bruises.”
He clinked his beer against hers. “No blood, no bruises.”
The kitchen had seemed egregiously massive when they’d first renovated the house, but now he was glad they’d spec’ed in such a big space. Next to the living room where they gathered to watch the Sox or the reality TV shows Elise had gotten them hooked on, the kitchen was the central meeting place in the house.
They’d designed it to offer private quarters for each of the brothers, plus two guest rooms. Each of the private quarters was a mini-apartment, complete with a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, and living room, but more and more, they spent their free time together in the communal kitchen and living room.
Julia jumped a little and put one hand on her stomach with a look of surprise.
“You good?” Ronan asked.
Julia nodded. “Baby’s active tonight.”
“She must know Fabricci’s is on the way,” Elise said.
“Or he,” Nick said.